Seven people were shot, with one critically wounded, when gunfire erupted Thursday night during a protest in Louisville over the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was fatally shot by police after they broke down her door in March.
The Associated Press reports: Thursday night’s demonstration came as protesters across the country, in cities including Los Angeles, Denver, New York and Memphis, turned out in alliance with demonstrators in Minneapolis, where George Floyd became the latest black man to die in police custody. It also came hours after the release of a 911 call Taylor’s boyfriend made on March 13, moments after the 26-year-old emergency medical technician was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door. No drugs were found in the home. Around 500 to 600 demonstrators marched through the Kentucky city’s downtown streets, the Courier Journal reported. The protests continued for more than six hours, ending in the early hours of Friday as rain poured down. At one point, protesters took turns hoisting the stone hand of King Louis XVI after it was broken off his statue outside City Hall. Shots were later heard, prompting some of the protesters to scramble for safety.
WDRB-TV was broadcasting live when the shots rang out. “Shots fired. We have shots fired,” the station’s reporter can be heard saying in a video (above).
WDRB reports: One person who was shot is in “critical” condition, police said. According to a statement from Mayor Greg Fischer early Friday morning, two victims were sent to surgery. All of the shooting victims are civilians, according to LMPD, which said none of the victims were shot by officers and that it is “too early to comment on suspects.” … Shots were fired around 11:30 p.m. Thursday as hundreds of people gathered on Jefferson Street, near Metro Hall and the Hall of Justice. Before the shots were fired, protesters tried to flip an LMPD prison transport vehicle. LMPD has not said who fired the shots.
More video from the protests below.
